A Reluctant Beginning
by Soulreaver58
Summary: Evelyn never wanted to become a capsuleer, but when death came knocking, she was left with little choice.


Searing fire accompanied the feeling of a dozen barbed worms crawling through Evelyn's left arm, leg and torso. She could feel them, two centimeter long metal constructs, digging their way toward her heart using the arterial flow of her blood as a guide. A shard bomb hit the hospital habitation she was in, while recovering from a flechette wound inflicted by a Gallente Federation conscript earlier in the day. Every move she made, every breath she took they moved closer, millimeter by millimeter, one had found the bone in her upper arm and was scraping its way toward her shoulder. She couldn't help but focus on that one, the pain was like nothing she had ever felt before. Evelyn screamed, tried to stay still and failed.

The bay was filled with wounded, some on hover beds stacked three and four high. She was in the triage area which allowed her to be on the lowest level with no one above her. Evelyn noticed through her pain blood dripping down the stacks of wounded onto other wounded and eventually the drab ferrocrete floor. A maintenance bot was busily sucking it up, but was being overwhelmed by the sheer volume. Two BioTechnicians approached looking harried, the first a middle aged woman with salt and pepper hair, began to physically look Evelyn over briskly and not at all tenderly. The other, a young man performed a scan from a wrist mounted sensor that displayed a diagram of her prone body in hologram. The middle aged woman stood and looked at the readings with her younger college.  
"What do you think Roger? It's your call," she said. The younger man looked at Evelyn. _Give me meds please_ she tried to say but all that came out was a grunt. Pain shot through her ribs as the shard started to grind into one.

"EMP her for the safety of medical staff, shutdown implants, and give her a lethal dose of tetra-morph. Triage to black," He said after a moment of consideration. Then looked at the middle aged lady lowering his head, whether it was out of shyness or difference Evelyn could not tell.

"Why?" The woman responded coldly.

"She's untagged, low ranking and the damage is extensive, it would be cheaper to ship in a replacement." Evelyn closed her eyes and shook her head. _No! I don't want to die!_ She tried to yell, she tried to grab at one of them, but as soon as she moved the pain almost caused her to black out. The shards began to move more quickly as Evelyn began to gasp for breath. She managed only to croak a barely audible "no".  
The middle-aged woman nodded, pulled something that looked a bit like a laser pistol and swept it from Evelyn's head to her feet. The wriggling of the shards contorted violently, then stopped. The same piece of equipment shut down her pain dampening and forced consciousness implants. Evelyn convulsed as the true magnitude of the damage that had been inflicted made itself known to her previously attenuated sensory cortex's. She never felt the morphine injection but she did feel its effects. A feeling of comfort spread from her right arm and into her body, with it, a hazy blanket of warmth. The pain was still there, but suddenly she didn't care as much anymore, nor could she move. The BioTechs briskly walked to the next patient. Evelyn's gurney gently began to hover to another area of the room away from the stacks, and toward the back of the loading bay. It stopped next to a man who's head was mostly gone, only his jaw and half of one eye socket remained glaring at her from above shattered teeth. Thoughts began to slowly form brought on my the tetra-morph high. Did she know this man? If he still had a brain, would he talk to her. What would he say? Behind him a black sign with white lettering came into focus, it read: Body Disposal Unit 6. Evelyn's vision faded to black and she felt herself falling. _I don't want to die..._

Evelyn woke with a start. She choked and recoiled against the tubes that had been inserted into her nose and throat. Reflex demanded she pull them out, but her hands and feet were bound by straps, not only holding her arms and legs in place, but holding her suspended in some sort of viscous clear fluid. Evelyn closed her eyes for a moment and collected her bearings. _Panic is the only enemy of survival, a calm soldier is a living soldier. I am not dead._ She realized that these were breathing tubes, and through force of will slowed her heart rate. _Calm, cold rational, no situation is hopeless if you are calm._ After a few deep breaths through the tube she realized that her gag reflex must be blocked, and the irritation in her nose should be worse, so that must be blocked as well, she was in a medical facility and a good one.

Evelyn opened her eyes again. She could see through the tanks transparent side, several technicians were looking at monitors and tapping at data-pads. None were paying any attention to her, save a man in a suit, a very expensive suit, who was standing close and just off to the left. He was smiling faintly and looking at her the way a hungry man looks at a steak. It was only then it dawned on her that she was naked, Amarr modesty kicked in and she tried to cover herself, but the straps held firm. She couldn't move, let alone put on a shroud or robe. _The wages of sin are death, woe to the slave who entices her master._ The suited man laughed, she couldn't hear him but she saw it.

There was a high pitched tone and the tank rotated on its axis, and slowly Evelyn was layed onto her back and the man disappeared from view. "Your reconstruction is complete; you will be discharged in the next few minutes. Thank you for your cooperation and have a nice day." The straps released and as the tank drained, Evelyn floated to the surface.  
_Thanks computer, you have a nice day too_. She thought.

About two hours later Evelyn had been unhooked from the machines and wiped down by smiling courteous Bio-Technicians. Apparently the device she had been floating in was a reconstruction tank, and the fluid was a bio-gel. The technicians told her that the bio-gel had sealed and sped up the growth of new tissues, she was not only alive, but in perfect health. But that one of the side effects of bio-gel was exfoliation, so her hair and outermost layer of skin would have to grow back. But mostly they were concerned about the scarring. The reconstruction, they said, had been rushed, so scarring was unavoidable. Evelyn just nodded, she had no idea why they were apologizing for her lack of hair, or a few scars. She was alive and whole so far as she could tell. Giving up a little skin was a fine trade.  
Once she was wiped down, and informed to not shower for 48 hours Evelyn put on a fresh uniform that fit, but did not have her rank attached, which made it a violation of dress standards, but she didn't complain. She was then escorted to a small meeting room. Like all Caldari rooms it was stark. The gray ferrocrete walls stood unpainted and two collapsible burnished aluminum chairs stood on each side of an aluminum table which was polished to a mirror sheen. It was the first time Evelyn had seen herself and she recoiled. Deep pockmarks surrounded her left eye and extended well above the hairline on her temple. Her lips were split the top one on the left, the bottom on the right. Her left cheek was so deeply scared it left her with a perpetual sneer when her face was relaxed. She took a seat on the servants chair, the one with its back to the door and after being unable to resist glancing at herself and recoiling she took off her jacket and folded it neatly over her reflected face. _The man in the suit wasn't looking at me in lust, he wants something else. _She realized.

Sometime later the door opened, and Evelyn popped to attention. The man in the expensive suit entered and sat in the masters chair and put down a data-pad bearing Evelyn's name and ID picture. "Please be seated," He said. Evelyn sat, overriding her Amarr conditioning that demanded she lower her eyes to the floor and instead stared through the man the Caldari way. Suits and Generals were often the same thing, and when around people of power, Evelyn had found it best to be quiet and invisible, but invisible was clearly not going to work here.  
"So, Evelyn, tell me about yourself," He said.

"You have my file, everything of interest is in it, sir," She replied.  
"It's not very Amarr of you to not do as you're told," The man said, his smile faded.

"You have no doubt read my file, it would not be Caldari of me to waste time, sir," She responded. The man barked out a laugh, the smile returning.  
"Very well, how about this. I will tell you what I have learned from the files, and you tell me if I missed anything. It will all be most expedient, sound good?" He said.

"Fine, sir."

"O.K. records indicate that your exact birth date is unknown. You were captured by an Amarr slaving raid into Minmatar territory; you were said to be around seven or eight years old at the time. You were then purchased by a man named Senor Rinah. Is this correct? And if so, I would like more details," He said.

"I honestly do not remember much before I was captured. I know that both of my parents were killed and my older sister was sold to the same master, but was sent to a slave pen with the older girls. I have not seen her since," She offered. It was all true but there was no reason to waste an important persons time with details he probability didn't actually want to know.

Evelyn remembered running free under the sun with her older sister chasing her. Falling asleep while listening to her father read a thing made of thin slices of wood called a book. Eating good tasty food while her parents talked and laughed. The sound of her father screaming for his wife from the other side of the airlock before the slavers cracked the outer door exposing him to space to silence him. Those same slavers raping Evelyn's mother time and time again before sending her out the airlock to join her husband in the cold blackness. The long trip in the dark cargo hold of a slave ship, with no food and little water. Watching a woman smother her own children before slitting her wrists, rather than becoming a slave, and saving her children from Evelyns fate. Screaming as she was pulled from her sisters' arms and thrown into the pen with scores of other crying children. These are the details that anger the powerful, and the details she kept to herself.  
The man paused and waited for more. But when it became evident that Evelyn was not going oblige he asked "So, was Senor Rinah a kind master?"  
"Yes," Evelyn responded. Evelyn had only seen Master Rinah twice. Once when he inspected the youth pens, and again right before she was sold for the second time. But she wasn't stupid, never say a word about your master, especially if the words are unkind. Master Rinah's overseers however had been almost uniformly brutal. Many had been slaves, and some still were. The overseers who still wore their slave collars were the worst, they could loose all the power they had gained if they upset the master. She had been beaten more times than she could count for infractions as slight as looking at the wrong person. But she was smart and she learned the game. Silence and invisibility, by the time she was sold again beatings were rare.

Clearly the suit wanted more information, but Evelyn remained silent. A few seconds later he moved on to the next question. "Alright, so at the age of about fifteen or sixteen your freedom was bought by the Hyasyoda Corporation in return for ten years of service. Is this correct?"

"Yes, I was sold to Hyasyoda," Evelyn replied.  
"The Caldari own no slaves, we are all free. Your freedom was returned to you, in return you pledged to serve Hyasyoda for a period of ten years," The man in the suit said with a tone of mild irritation.  
"As you say sir. I have worked for Hyasyoda for twelve years," Evelyn replied. Luxuries such as drugs, alcohol, spare uniforms or extra weaponry added to debt calculations. As were any medical treatments that fell outside of wellness and prevention. So by her best accounting, she had only another half year service at most until her contract was over. But that was before this last injury.

"Why were you sold and not retained by Senor Rinah?"

"I was told that I was too large to be a good house servant, I can also read which is frowned upon. I was not strong enough to be a good mining or agricultural slave. I am not attractive enough for a pleasure house. Hyasyoda was paying a premium for any slaves who met combat criteria, which I did, sir," Evelyn said. Being bought by the Caldari had been the best thing that had happened to her. Military training had been physically demanding but, compared to the overseers, the combat instructors had been almost kind, especially to those who already knew discipline. Food was always plentiful and so long as she did what she was told, no one paid much attention to her. She truly loved the uniform and invisibility it bestowed to their wearers.

The man in the suit nodded, "OK, you have been in combat in four different conflicts on seven different worlds. Beyond that, you have not shown any aptitudes for anything other than independent scouting. You have no records of bravery, or cowardice. You're proficiency and physical strength scores are above average for a female, your conduct scores are slightly above average, which given your background is expected. The only thing you appear to be truly good at is surviving. We ran an analysis, did you know that your chances of surviving with your battle history is somewhere around three hundred to one? But its amazing that for such an extensive combat history you have almost no documentation, you are something of a ghost."

"Heroes die, it's how they become heroes, I've known a few. Cowards are shot. I have chosen to live. Sir," was Evelyns reply. A long silence followed. The man put down the data-pad and stared at her for a moment. Evelyn wondered if she had made a mistake with that last comment. Her heart began to pound.  
"Alright, well now we know all about you. Why haven't you asked who I am yet?" He asked.

"You will tell me when I need to know, sir."

The man smiled, his teeth were too white and straight to be real. Evelyn thought that he might have been a handsome man, if he were not so perfect. He looked something like a Gal Fed android, no blemishes or even visible pores in his skin so far as she could tell. "I think we are going to get along fine. My name is Joshua House, but you can call me Mr. House. I am an agent for the capsuleer recruitment for the Caldari Nation. When you were scanned after the shredder bomb, your DNA analysis and testing information was entered into our database and as it turns out you are a 96 out of 107 point match for capsuleer conversion criteria."

"OK?" Evelyn said. She didn't like where this was going.  
"Hyasyoda thought you were dead or dieing. So I pulled rank and secretly got you transferred to an officers medical station. I delayed your capsuleer suitability report with a few bribes here and there and sent in a bid for the rest of your contract. Your contract manager was more than happy to sell the rest of your debt to me, probably thought he was going to getting a good deal since he thought your were dead. I'm willing to bet he's pretty pissed off now that the report has been delivered," Mr House said looking pleased with himself. Evelyn continued to look through him blank faced.  
"You know what a capsuleer is right?" He said a confused look spreading across his face. "You should be excited, this is something that only one in a hundred million can do."

"Capsuleers are elite pilots. I don't like space," Evelyn said. The screams of her parents dying away as they were sucked into the black rang in her ears. Just the thought of being in space sent shivers down her spine. On troop transports she never approached the hull and stayed as deep in the bowels of the ship as she could, if she was not in stasis for the trip, and she usually was. "Plus, it doesn't make any sense, I only have six months left on my contract, you would never make your money back."  
Mr. House just laughed, "First of all, capsuleers are not elite pilots, they are so much more than that. When you become a capsuleer you will learn in hours what should take weeks or months to learn normally. By the end of your basic training, which will only take days, you will be flying a ship by yourself, and you will be more than a match for any ship of the same class piloted by best regular crew the Caldari state can muster. Within a few months you will be able to fly circles around the best crewed ships two or even three classes larger than yours and win every battle. Capsuleers are not pilots of ships, they are ships! You will have more power under your direct control than any normal human ever has."  
"Thank-you sir, but I am not interested," Evelyn interrupted, she was sweating and was sure it was becoming visible. She tried to slow her heart through force of will, but failed. "I just want to finish my 6 months and go find any family I have left and settle down."

Mr. House looked at her, shocked, "You may decline, that is your right. There are no slaves in the Caldari Nation. But I just spent 150 thousand ISK fixing you up and I own your contract now. Lets see, for a soldier of your modest rank, Lance Corporal, that would be about 20 years wages, give or take? Not including interest. You are going to work for me for a very, very long time." He put the data-pad into his pocket and stood up shaking his head and started walking to the door.

Evelyn bit her lip. It took skill and luck to survive in the field. She had the skills but her luck would run out eventually. One well placed shot and it was all over. Going back to combat was a death sentence. "How long will I have to be a capsuleer to pay off my debt?"

Mr. House stopped at the door, but didn't turn around. "Well you will have to cover the medical procedures. And your first ship. Add insurance, cloning and other incidentals. You should be able to pay off the entire 50 million ISK cost in….. 9 months to a year, something like that. Assuming you don't go wrecking ships or do anything stupid. After you pay off your debts, you will be free to do as you please."

"Fine, where do I print?" She said flatly.  
Mr. House slid the data pad in front of her. "You need a last name."

"Slaves don't have last names," Evelyn said.

"There are no slaves here," Mr. House said and typed a name. Evelyn Phantom. "There you go. In a year, or maybe two you will be free to do anything you please."

"As you say," Evelyn said. _Is it nine months or two years Mr. House?_ She put her thumb on the data-pad. Mr. House left humming a jolly tune to himself. After he was gone Evelyn threw her chair against the wall, looked at herself in the mirror table and punched her reflection leaving a smear of blood below her reflected nose. After a few moments she wiped up the blood, picked up the chair, sat, and waited for whatever would come next.

Evelyn sat in a comfortable auto-mold chair in Mr. House's well appointed shuttle/office. The chair cushions were blood red and adjusted to her body within seconds of her sitting, the frame of the chair was aluminum, but polished with intricate inlay's of gold. She had never sat in anything like it before. An hour or two later her new handler, Mr. House's personal assistant, a woman by the name of Jane had dropped her off at a posh resort on a planet not far from Caldari Prime. The resort catered to her every need or want but even in stylish civilian attire she was very much out of place. Mr House had taken her uniform and given her a standard package of fashionable clothing, none of which she felt comfortable in. It was uniformly too thin, the colors garish, and worst of all revealing. The scars from her brush with death were everywhere and unconcealed set her even further apart from the synthetically produced flawless beauty of the wealthy civilians who, to their credit were outwardly polite but abstained from talking to her whenever possible. Evelyn caught more than a few stealing glimpses and whispering. After the second day, she had retreated to her room, ordered room service, and watched holo-vids.

Jane had stopped by on the fifth day and had been deeply upset that Evelyn was not "Making full use of the facilities." After some heated discussion Jane took Evelyn off the resort and bought her some different attire that was less revealing and in tolerable shades of green, brown and black. Jane, was a lady who knew how to and, more importantly, where to party. They had gone to the slums near the spaceport drank until they could barely walk let alone dance. On the trip back they laughed maniacally between fits of vomiting. The auto-cab's self-cleaning mechanism would be busy for at least a half hour. Jane dropped Evelyn off at her room and gave her some synthetic endorphins to take the edge off the coming hang over.

Evelyn began to leave the room to run along the beaches, which turned a lot of heads. Not too many hideously ugly people ran along the white sands in combat boots, brown pants and a green, long sleeved tee shirt. She also began to take her meals in one of the fancy resort restaurants, though she was still always left alone.

After a week Evelyn had become bored with paradise. There were only so many places to run and the holo-vids had become stale. Evelyn wondered if her boredom was caused by never having had spare time to do as she pleased before so, she ordered some educational programs from various universities and began to study them. Two weeks later Jane returned with a shuttle and took Evelyn to Amsen where her "capsuleer transition and orientation" would begin.

She sat alone in Mr. House's planet side office looking at a picture of his wife and kids at the beach. All of them even the children had clearly been surgically enhanced. Perfect in every way, Mr. Houses wife had no sign of stretching around her abdomen even though the photo had four children in it. Even their complexions and eye colors matched. Evelyn wondered to herself if maybe they were all vat grown, rather than uterine developed, she heard that the very wealthy did that sometimes.

"Good morning Ms. Phantom," Mr. House said as he entered the room. He had the data-pad in one hand and a small black stylus in the other. "Ah, you're looking good. Some of your hair is back and look at that tan! Liked your time at the Silver Sands did you?"

"Yes, nicest place I've ever lived. It was very pleasant. I would also like to say that your assistant Jane was particularly helpful and kind." Evelyn replied.

"Ah yes, I had to give her the day off after your, excursion. Poor thing looked awful. I think it was a few dozen things she drank. She told me that you picked out very interesting clothing, very….. militant for lounging around a resort."

"I am militant," Was all Evelyn could think to say.

Mr. House paused for a moment and laughed,"Are you ready to meet the new you?"

"New me?" Evelyn asked.

"Yes, it's really exciting, come on," Mr. House said gesturing with the data-pad. Mr. House provided Evelyn an ID badge that she hung on her left breast pocket. Mr. House did the same. They walked down a series of long hallways, ceiling mounted auto cannons tracked them as they walked. Mr. House paid them no mind as he chattered about trivial things that Evelyn only half heard. Clearly he had never been on the receiving end of an auto-sentry. She could not help but shiver as they passed; each emplacement consisted of one AC12.5, probably using standard armor piercing ammunition and one AGL 30, a huge bored gun that fired grenades the size of a child's fist. Evelyn also noticed a blast door behind each emplacement. Given the confines of the hallway, the extra armor on the turrets and the blast doors, this area was, to put it bluntly, unassailable and undoubtedly the most heavily defended place she had ever seen. Whatever was at the end of this maze must be unbelievably valuable given the cost and thought put into its defense. And that was just the visible equipment; she wondered what sort of dirty tricks they had concealed in these halls of death.

"And here we are," Mr. House said stopping by a 3 meter tall door with a mirror polish. A laser scanned both ID cards, and the faces, or perhaps the retinas of Evelyn and Mr. House. The door swung slowly open. There were about fifteen technicians in a room about the size of a small warehouse. Terminals were everywhere, expensive holographic ones, and most of the technicians were busily reading them and making adjustments. A ferrocrete cylinder was the focus of the room, it went nearly to the ceiling. A very tall man with light brown hair approached Evelyn and Mr. House. He was like so many people Evelyn had met so far, perfect and handsome. But the surgeon who had done his work was either very talented, or didn't have to do much, the man looked natural.

"Hello, you must be Ms. Phantom. My name is Dr. Shriker, I'll be guiding you through the transition phase of the capsuleer protocols," He extended his hand and she took it, his grip was firm but not overly so. He smiled warmly.

"Evelyn, will be fine," She said and couldn't help but smile back. She wondered if his bedside manner was in anyway indicative of his in bed manner.

"Alright Evelyn, please, come with me," Dr. Shriker lead Evelyn and Mr. House to a small platform on the far side near the tank. "OK so are you ready to meet the new you?" He asked.

"Sure?" Evelyn replied. Dr. Shriker looked at her with a slightly confused expression on his face.

"O.K. then," He made a gesture to one of the Techs, the sides of the cylinder slid down into the floor. A circle of yellow-green lights flickered on illuminating a naked body floating in the tank. It was clearly a woman, of Evelyn's height. Just as when Evelyn was floating in the rejuvenation tank, this woman was held suspended in the center by straps around the ankles and wrists. One thick cord and a series of smaller cords jutted from the woman's head lieu of hair. The smaller cords seemed to come directly out of the scalp, but the largest one jutted directly out of a socket protruding from the back of the skull. Several ports were in evidence two on each arm, two more on each leg and another on the pelvis.

"What is that?" Evelyn snapped.

"That's the new….." Dr Shriker didn't finish and looked at Mr. House. "Did you give her the briefing? She was supposed to be briefed before she came here."

"I sent my assistant to do it two weeks ago. But there were more immediate problems, so those got fixed first. Didn't you get my E-mail?" Mr. House said defensively.

"No… I did not," Dr. Shriker said glaring at Mr. House. "O.K. lets go through this the old fashioned way. This is a clone made from your DNA and is a perfect replica of your optimal body and brain. We have been growing it since you were detected as a candidate and it had been announced that you would probably survive your injuries. You can't see the clones face well due to the breathing and feeding tubes, but it looks just like you, minus all that damage. The ports on the arms and legs are for direct injections of nutrients should you become deficient and drugs if you should become sick. This port on the pelvis goes directly to the bladder and acts as a catheter taking urine out for recycling. There is another attachment on the back of the pelvis for removal and recycling of solid waste.

The interface units on the head lead to your brain and its various sensory cortex's, through them you will receive data from the ships' on board sensors. Objects and actions that occur on the outside of the ship will be displayed to you as audio and visual sensations and to a lesser extent, taste. Damage or interactions on the surface of the ship will be displayed to you as touch and to some extent smell. Once you are inserted into a ship you will see what I mean.

The interface units on the spine attach directly to the spinal cord. To make the ship do something you just need to move your body normally and the ship will respond. For example, to move foreword at cruising speed you walk normally. To use afterburners or microwarp drives you run, and to make a jump into the warp, you jump.

And don't worry, you will not be flailing around in your pod. The interface inhibits body movement unless the medical scanners notice your clone needs some exercise. In which case there is enough room for you to move around in your pod. This will happen automatically."

Evelyn looked at the body, "So you're going to put me, in that?"

"Yes, of course."  
"Why don't you put the ports in the body I already have?" Evelyn asked.

"Because it's easier and safer to grow the body around the ports and interface units. They will be more firmly attached and are not as prone to infection and irritation. A surgery this invasive and extensive would be painful for months if not years, and we cannot guarantee proper placement. This is the only effective and safe way wire the units into the biological matter." Dr. Shriker explained.

"So once I am in the body, and in the ship, how hard is it to get out?" Evelyn asked. "And do you mind if I take a look around?"

"Oh sure, go ahead," He said, then went on as Evelyn slowly inspected the pod and its contents taking notes of the various ports, most were in a line along the length of her spine, one for each vertebra. "After you are in the new you, you'll rarely if ever leave your pod. If you choose to leave, you will have to stay in a sterile station apartment to prevent damage to your interface units and keep your clone from getting ill. It has never been exposed to outside bacteria so its immune system is very weak. Newer methods do exist that can do with fewer ports and prepare the clone for more vigorous action in a normal environment. But those cost much more money and are currently only available to university and battle school graduates. Anyway, the apartments are small, and you really can't do anything in them that you can't do in your ship. Almost no capsuleers use them, most consider interacting with the world in the flesh, unrewarding."

Evelyn looked at the clones closed eyes. "So how does the consciousness transfer work?"

"That is complex, but I will break it down into something easy to understand. Your brain contains more information than most reasonable sized computers can handle. We will download the information from your brain onto a hard drive buffer, check it for anomalies and implant it directly into the clones' brain. In this case we will erase the information as we pull it out, so when we are done, your current body will have no imprinted information in it's brain. The clone will have all the data. We have a second clone that will also be implanted at the same time. So if the clone in front of you ever becomes damaged, we can just activate the other one."

"So there will be two of me?"

"After a fashion. Once both clones are imprinted one will be activated, the one in this room. The other will stay in stasis but will be linked in imprint mode. Whatever you experience in this clone will be downloaded into the other. So you should loose little if any information in the event of your first clones destruction."

"So, what happens to me?" She asked as she checked the ports on the back side of the clone.

"Well, you will be downloaded into the clone. It's painless I assure you. From there we will keep you in a sterile room until we are sure you are completely adjusted, this takes a few hours to a day or so. Then we will integrate you to the capsule, and put you in your first ship."

"No I mean what happens to my body?"

"Oh, well that will be disassembled for spare parts or discarded. Once you are no longer in it the body has only very minor recycling value," Dr. Shriker replied blandly.

"So I'll die." Evelyn said.

"Well, that is a philosophic question. Your original body will die, yes, but your consciousness will be completely transferred to the clone. So you will still be very much alive."

"What about my soul?"

"Your what?" Dr Shriker asked.

"She grew up Amarr. So she has some ingrained primitive beliefs," Mr. House said, "It was in my E-mail."

"The Amarr use very similar technology. I think their theologians agree that the soul transfers," Dr. Shriker explained haltingly. Apparently, this was not a question he got very often. "So are you ready?"

"Sure." _As if I have a choice._

The procedure was simple. Evelyn laid down on a slightly inclined medical bed and was given a sedative. As she faded away strange alien looking equipment was placed around her head. She woke in a room with white tiles on the walls. Two attendants in full bio-hazard protective suits helped her to a sitting position, then to her feet. She wobbled, felt heavy and her feet immediately hurt.

"Ugh, I think there's something wrong," She said.

"What your are experiencing is normal," It was Dr. Shriker's voice, "Your new body has never experienced gravity outside of the tank. So you will feel weak for quite some time. You also have no calluses on your feet or hands so they will feel strange as well."

"Can I see my body?" Evelyn asked squinting, the harsh artificial light was hurting her eyes.

"You know, I thought you might ask," Dr. Shriker said. The lights dimmed to about half of their earlier power and Evelyn was guided to a long rectangular window. There she was, or rather, there it was, her body laid out on the same hospital bed she had left it on. Evelyn put her hand on the glass knowing that this would be the closest to her body she would ever come again. She felt a longing like she had never felt before, she wanted her body back as broken and scarred as it was. It was the body that carried her through her life from before she was born to just moments before. A tear fell down her face, it deserved so much more than to be discarded like garbage.

"Are you OK?" This time the voice was Jane, her handler. The attendant holding her left arm gave it a squeeze. Evelyn looked at the attendant, the featureless chrome mask obscuring the face behind it completely.

"Is that you Jane?" Evelyn asked.

"Yea, you didn't think I would let you do all this alone did ya?" She said.

"Thanks," Evelyn said. Then looked back to her old self, "We lived my whole life together. It's a shame to see her go. And now that I think of it, that body is the only thing I have left that my parents gave to me." They stood there for a long moment in silence. Jane gave Evelyn a gentle hug, her bio-hazard suit crinkled.

"How about this, I will make sure your body isn't taken out with the trash. I'll make sure it's properly taken care of. OK?" Jane said.

"That would be great, thanks."

"No problem, now let's get you dressed. They are going to want to do some quick checkups and tests on you. Things are a bit backed up so it might take a day or two. Then we can get you started in your pod."

"I'm looking forward to it," Evelyn lied, getting into a pod was very low on her list of things she wanted to do, somewhere just below drowning. She wanted her old body back. She wanted to go planet side, live in a house, work a job maybe even get married and have kids. All that was beyond reach now.

Evelyn was taken to a well appointed single room containing an auto-mold couch a holo-screen and a full length mirror. She put on the change of clothing that had been provided, a brown and green ensemble with calf high black boots. Clearly Jane had been at work here as well. She stood in front of the mirror, the new body's features did look like her, more or less, but she was thinner, almost gaunt, her skin pale and untanned, almost translucent and flawless. She didn't have a scar anywhere nor so much as a wrinkle on her face. She looked down at her breasts. _Clearly, you ladies have never met gravity before have you?_ She felt the cables embedded in her head and followed them with her hands. She expected them to hurt, at least a little but they seemed as natural as the rest of her. So well integrated were the implant attachments that it was difficult to say where her own skin ended and the attachments began, by feel anyway. Evelyn tied two of them in a braid and knotted it. The cables came alive and gently untied themselves just as one of the nurses said they would. Evelyn had been told that each wire no matter how fine had its own muscular system that was there for two reasons. First, it allowed the cables to self-attach in the pod so no attendants would be needed for pod integration or egress. Secondly, it kept them from tangling. As creepy as they were, Evelyn found them intriguing. She layed down on the couch, called up a holo-vid soap opera that she had first encountered while on vacation after her near death experience and idly played with her "hair". It took her only a few minuets to fall asleep.

She had no idea how long she slept but the holo-vid was over when the intercom sounded with Jane's voice. "Evelyn, by the door you will find a box. Open it please." Evelyn got up, wiped the sleep from her eyes, found the package and did as she was told. In it she found a simple short gold necklace with a diamond delicately suspended in a small transparent locket. No one had ever given her something like this. She was also fairly sure that it was against uniform regulations. "Come on, put it on!" Jane said.

"OK, thanks. But I don't think they will let me take it into the pod. What is the occasion?" Evelyn asked.

"I checked with the Doc, he said that so long as everything was inert, non-reactive and the chain is short we could sneak it by. So no worries there. I wanted you to have something that could remind you of your former life. That locket is you, or rather made of the old you. I had your body cremated and super compressed under heat. The diamond is every carbon atom you used to be made of," Jane giggled, "Who says you can't take it with you?"  
Evelyn said nothing for a long time alternately rolling the necklace in her hand and looking at it. She put it on and managed to croak out a barely understandable "thanks". She heard nothing more from Jane, House, or Dr. Shriker for the next three days. Bio-hazard suited nurses visited her regularly for scans and tests, they never gave their names. When she wasn't being tested she watched the vids and studied her courses; she found she enjoyed philosophy and theology the most. But sometimes she paced in the tiny room. Every minute increased her fear. Confinement in infinity laid ahead.

On the third day the two nurses arrived at the scheduled time for first integration. She walked down a very long stainless steel hallway with no doors. Somewhere in the middle was a four meter long, three meter wide metal egg, her capsule and new home. She knew what to do, the nurses' briefing had been thorough. Her heart pounded and muscles tightened.

"Once you're integrated, Dr. Shriker will walk you through basic controls," One of the nurses said. Evelyn shed her clothing and climbed into the open hatch of the pod with nothing of her former life save Jane's necklace. The cables and wires could sense the pod and were already swaying gently back and fourth across her back. The interior was polished metal of a kind Evelyn had not encountered before. She laid down in the fetal position the metal was strangely warm. The cables slithered along snapping into their attachment points. Suddenly existence ceased to be for a moment and she found herself looking down at the nurses who were walking back down the hallway, she could see, feel, smell hear and even taste as though she were a giant standing in the hall.

"Evelyn, I see that integration is nearly complete. Once the capsule tells us that all of your bio hookups are in place we will begin," Dr. Shriker said, It was as though he was standing right next to her, not on comms. But as she looked around, it was clear that no one was in the hallway with her. A few moments passed. "Alright, all lights are green and pod goo is topped off. We are ready to start. Evelyn, talk to me so I know you're getting all this."

"I hear you fine doctor," She said after a short hesitation. She could feel her vocal cords and jaw move, though she knew that her 'real body' was paralyzed inside her. No, inside the capsule. _The capsule is not me. It's just a machine, a tiny space ship._

"Good. Your vitals are running a bit higher than I would like, but still within normal operating parameters. So what we are going to do is start with navigation. Do you remember what you've been taught so far?" The pod ticked and popped as the air pressure of the hallway was dropped to a near vacuum.

"Yes," She said. _Walk in the direction you want to go to cruise, run to engage Microwarp or Afterburners, jump to engage jumpdrive._

There was a thump and the sound of an electric arc, Evelyn felt herself being flung down the hallway opposite of the way she had come. She was blasted out of the station at over a hundred meters per second. Evelyn screamed and tried to claw her way back to the station as it receded into the darkness. She thought of her mother and father being sucked into the darkness and the fear of being the next through the airlock. She remembered her fathers bloated face, eyes dangling from their optic nerves laying in the airlock as her brutalized mother was pushed in with him. And her last scream as she was murdered by exposure to nothingness. Evelyn managed to get enough of her wits about her to try to run back to the station but try as she might the pod did not respond.

"Evelyn, you need to calm down. I have command override of your capsule. I will give you command once you've gotten a hold of yourself," Dr Shriker said.

"If she does that over the commline again I'm going to..." The channel was cut, the voice was Mr. House.

"Evelyn, chill out. Everything's going to be OK," This time it was Jane, "It feels and looks to you like you are in space, you're not. You are in your pod, safely in your pod. Keep telling yourself that. Now breath, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale."

_I'm in a ship. I'm in a ship. I'm in a ship. _Evelyn chanted to herself. It didn't help, but Jane's voice did. Jane kept talking, kept reassuring until Evelyn could bare to open her eyes. She sucked in air and pushed it out again. The station was far in the distance now and still receding. She looked down to see the planet below, great green and brown continents surrounded by blue-green seas.

"Your vitals are back to normal-ish," Jane said, "There is a reason we don't start capsuleers out in fully armed battleships. Its bad for our stations."

"You could have given me some warning," Evelyn said stiffly

"I thought of that, but after doing some research thought against it given your history. Seems like you don't like space that much," It was Dr. Shriker again, "You need to relax completely before I give you control of the capsule. I am showing that your fists are balled up and you're clenching your teeth. We cant have that. A balled up fist activates weapon systems."

"You're going to sit in that parking orbit until you unfuck..." Mr. House's comline was cut again. It took several hours before Evelyn became used to floating in the black. Every 90 minuets she watched a beautiful sunrise followed by a remarkable sunset 45 minutes after that. During her orbital day she could feel the solar radiation warming her skin. _No the pods hull._ At night she shivered from the cold, _I'm not really cold, the pod is telling me that it's cold._

"Alright, it looks like you are doing well. Dr. Shriker is going to give you propulsion controls. We want you to come back to the station. So start walking." Evelyn began to pace. Each step felt like her booted foot was hitting the ground. The pod responded instantly, smoothly bringing her to cruising speed. _Wow, 120 meters per second. I'm walking at 120 meters per second!_

"Like we told you before. You move your body, the pod translates these moves into thrust. Orbital mechanics are too complex for a human without a computer to understand. We did not evolve in this environment so Newtonian physics are difficult to grasp. You need not worry about that though the pod will take care of it for you." Dr Shriker said casually. "So now that you are back at the station we have an Ibis waiting for you. You should be able to see it off to your left. Go there. When you get within a few kilometers some icons should appear. One is the boarding icon, touch it and the docking process will begin." Evelyn moved slowly toward the ugly, asymmetrical, boxy ship. It was burnished silver with more than a few scorch marks. From her studies she knew that the Ibis was and old design. Countless millions had been created over the years and it was hopelessly obsolete, hence its widespread use for training.

Evelyn was about 2km from the Ibis when a little glowing stick pictograph of a person in an open circle with an arrow pointing in appeared before her. She touched it, the pod flipped around its thrusting engine pointed toward the Ibis. The Ibis responded by dividing its nose in half exposing two egg shaped hemispheres. Steering thrusters guided the capsule neatly into the left hemisphere. The nose closed and briefly Evelyn was in darkness. Then the universe opened to her again, she could feel the power of her new self. She could see, hear and feel more detail than ever could in the real world.

"OK, lets get to work," Evelyn said.

They began with navigation. It took only an hour to learn how to move from one area of the system to another. Another hour to learn how to use her weapons. In another few hours she was shown how to learn ship skills at incredible speeds. Her brain was being augmented by the pods on-board computer. Additionally chemicals and neurotransmitters were being synthetically generated and injected when and where they were needed. Despite all her misgivings she had learned to accept the emptiness of space as her home, at least for the moment. Within a week she found herself fighting pirates and thieves generally referred to as RATS in asteroid belts throughout Caldari space and accomplishing simple missions for various entities at the direction of Mr. House. Three months later, popping RATS was as easy as breathing.

"Command, I have arrived at belt 7. Five hostile RATS attacking a mining barge, Engaging," Evelyn said coolly as she dropped out of the warp. Flicking on the afterburner of her Kestrel, the infamous Caldari missile frigate, she began to orbit the mining barge at around 1500 m/sec at a range of 20km. The Kestrel was a joy to fly, it was fairly maneuverable, and its weapons complement was second to none in her class. As with all Caldari ships it was a mess of strange angles and asymmetry, it was designed with missiles in mind. The missile launchers and cargo bays were located on one of thee central hull units, each attached by a single spar to the outer hull units that contained the reactors, the capsule and sensors.

The familiar ring of her targeting computer locking on and posting position data flowed about the pirate ships. She selected one and opened fire, a volley of four scourge light missiles, the enemy frigate exploded. Evelyn felt sorry for the RATS, they had no chance at all. Only now were they even targeting her. She fired another volley and another enemy frigate exploded. The three remaining vessels began to fire back, Evelyn watched their muzzle flashes and stepped quickly to the right. Most of the shells missed and zinged past, a few hit with a thump but were easily deflected by her shields. There was no sound in space, but the ships on-board sensors sent the shells trajectory data to the pod where they were translated into appropriate understandable sounds. Just one of the hundreds of little advantages capsuleers had over crewed vessels that added up to nearly complete dominance.

Three volleys later, all of the RATS were dead in space. "Tango X-Ray, for the assist _Hells Handmaiden,_" The captain of the mining ship called out.

"No problem, keep on keeping on," Evelyn called. She slowed to a walk and approached one of the wrecks. When she was a few meters away a small tractor beam ripped the ship apart looking for salvageable modules and cargo. She managed to find a few inexpensive guns and some more or less undamaged armor plates. A message popped up that she had earned 50 thousand ISK (Interstellar Kredits) bounty for the RATS. Once she was done she moved to the next wreck. As she was looking over the list of her salvage haul she was rocked by the high pitched whine of a microjump drive followed by the wooshing sound of air. She looked up and saw another frigate blast by her, sensors told her it was moving at over 4km/sec. "Shit!" she yelled to herself and set her Kestrel to calculate a warp to the nearest station.

The Raptor, a Caldari ship that looked something like the letter Y with the arms pointed downward, turned hard establishing an orbit around her at just under 8km. She knew that the pilot was a capsuleer, no regular human could fly a ship like that, they would be crushed under the enormous G-forces of the violent maneuvering. And whoever this was, they were much more experienced than she was. She didn't even get a lock warning before full lock was established. Icons appeared two nets and a little generator. She felt her legs grow cripplingly stiff, as both regular engines and warp drives were disrupted, she wasn't going anywhere. A half second later shots began pounding against her shields; she felt them as hail hitting her jacket. Evelyn knew her Kestrel was lost, she couldn't run, and she was not going to be able to outfight that pilot in that machine. She targeted him and fired off a missile salvo anyway, two of the four missiles hit, but did little damage. By that time, the shells were smashing into her armor and hull and it felt like needles being driven into her skin. A split second before the Kestrel exploded, the pod auto ejected blasting her free. Evelyns legs were free again, in the moment it took for the Raptor to lock her pod, Evelyn jumped.

Evelyn landed at the station and docked up. Her Ibis was waiting for her. She communicated to the ground staff to take it away and bought a new Kestrel on the market with new fittings and ammo. The Raptor had cost her almost half of her earnings for the month. She cursed the unknown pilot. Evelyn didn't think she could be in a worse mood when her comms opened up. Mr. House was calling.  
"I just got a report that you lost your Kestrel, very disappointing. I've contacted the insurance company and will be taking the payout and applying it to your debt. With interest, you actually owe more than you did when I funded your start-up. Do you have any plans to increase your earnings or are you going to remain an employee of the Caldari State forever?" He asked.  
Evelyn didn't reply at first. She had plenty of things she wanted to say, but none that she should. She gritted her teeth. "I will endeavor to do better in the future."

"I should hope so. Keep up the hard work. If you can get your earnings up by 30% and not take anymore losses, you should be able to complete your contract in two years. Goodnight Evelyn." Mr. House signed off.

As Evelyn waited for her new ship to be fitted by the ground crew she opened up her E-mail and filtered out the junk. She didn't bother to read any of it, especially the insurance report that her ship had been destroyed and she would need to buy more insurance for the new one. As if she didn't already know. But one message was listed as high priority, Jamie Johnson, the PI she had hired to find her family, if she still had one. It read: "Evelyn, I have good news and bad news. I have located three members of your family. A grandmother by the name of June and two cousins Candice and Rikard, they all live in Gallente Federation space, the coordinates are enclosed. The bad news comes in several forms. 1). Your grandmother is terminal, and will likely pass in the next few days. She is lucid and I spoke with her earlier today, she is looking forward to seeing you, if you can get there. 2). I have been unable to locate your parents remains and honestly think it is an impossible task. The slavers in question were captured by Minmatar forces several years ago and executed. No records as to where your parents ship was when it was captured exist, the ship itself was recycled 6 months ago along with its computer and navigation system. 3). I was also unable to locate your sister, but I am about 90% sure that she is dead. The last report of her was a bill of sale to a pleasure company that catered to clients with abominable tastes in perversion. Most slaves don't last more than a few weeks in such establishments and this was three years ago. The company itself was disbanded last year after a wealthy noble was murdered on the premises, the resulting law suit bankrupted them. All of their records have been sealed. I believe this concludes our business as I have exhausted all reasonable avenues of approach. My itemized bill for services rendered and expenses is inclosed. I wish I could have done more for you."

Evelyn sent his payment, the princely sum of 25 thousand ISK, but it was well worth it along with a kind note stating her appreciation. With that, her ship and the new fittings she had blown almost a three quarters of a million ISK today, which hurt. But she had enough operating capital to take a few days off. Mr. House would be angry of course, but sometimes it was better to beg forgiveness than to ask for permission. She already knew that her punishment would be some sort of financial penalty adding to her time of service, she was willing to accept that. She sent a communique to the ground crew. 5K isk per member if they had her new ship fitted within the next two hours. She laughed when they were done in 53 minuets.

Evelyn warped to the local stargate, one of several she would have to cross to get to her destination. Stargates where the only way to travel from system to system in a reasonable amount of time. Several ships floated in a rough line waiting clearance to enter. A Concord battleship sent Evelyn her number. _Even capsuleers have to wait in lines._ She grumbled to herself. It was then she noticed the Raptor floating quietly next to a freighter. Apparently the Raptor pilot noticed her as well, a com request appeared. Her first thought was to decline, but it looked like she had at least a half hour to pass. Evelyn was safe, few were stupid enough to engage with a Concord ship around. Concord kept the peace and if you broke it you could expect to find yourself broken into pieces, quickly. She accepted the request.

A holographic face of a young man in perhaps his 20's appeared. He had a short blond beard and a shaved head. He stared at her with a startled expression on his face. "Wow.. what happened to your face?" This was not the best way to start a conversation.  
"Residual Self Image, this is what I looked like before my conversion," Evelyn said sharply. That was not entirely true, the scars were far less prominent, the RSI was more of a blend of her pre and post-shreader bomb self.

"You should really get that looked at. I know some neuro-programmers who could fix you right up. A little ISK and you could look as good as I do," He said then grinned, "Looks like it didn't take you long to bounce back, that new ship still has the packing plastic on it."

"You here to rub it in, or do you have something to say?" Evelyn snarled.

"Hold the hostility sister girl. Popping your ship was just business, business is done, so we are all cool," He said with a healthy grin.

"Bullshit, not only did you sucker punch me but I wouldn't have had a chance even if you had a little honor. No way that was a fair fight. You get your jollies off of picking on the new people?"

"Come on, lighten up. Like what you were doing to the RATS was fair? How many people did you kill during that last little encounter? Typically each frigate has a crew of four, so you probably snuffed 20 people or so. I blaped your ship and didn't even take your pod. All you did was loose a little ISK," He replied, "Who's the bad guy now?"

Evelyn felt her heart sink. She was usually successful in not thinking about the lives she was taking on a daily basis. "Yea, great."

"Aww, don't look all sad. RATS, Concord, Empire ships, they are all just popcorn. You will come to realize that we aren't like them anymore, people I mean. We're... more than them. I can't say better, just somehow bigger, more... everything," The capsuleer sighed, "I just can't wrap my head around what we are, but I know we are not people anymore. We're... agh, here I am getting all deep and shit. Look, no hard feelings, OK? I just wanted to let you know that when you're all done enforcing the peace in the high security belts for your carebears, give me a call. I am part of a capsuleer corporation, but to be fair we are mostly just a group of capsuleers who hang out together for fun, profit and delicious tears. We're always looking for new capsuleers who want to kick ass and not be bored off of them. Oh, and um... I'm Rex by the way."  
"I'm Evelyn, so what profit was there to shooting up my ship?" Evelyn asked, "I didn't even have very good modules. My cargo barely covered the ammo you used."

"A nice bounty, I mean it wasn't a lot but you were pretty easy and I was in the area. No offense though, I can see you've only been around a few months. Skill and tactics will come," Rex said' "But they would be faster if you worked with other capsuleers. I see you're still running with the Caldari State."

"A bounty, on me? Who would do that?" Evelyn found this strange. Usually bounties were reserved for criminals and Concord posted them regularly against offenders, especially capsuleers who often traveled beyond their jurisdiction. It gave other capsuleers a reason to punish their own.  
"Ummm, let me see. Yea, it was some guy named Joshua House. He didn't give a reason, seemed like a nice enough guy though."  
Evelyn gritted her teeth. _Motherfucker._

A day later she crawled out of her pod, much to the horror of the ground crew at her destination. The station was orbiting an obscure largely oceanic world on the periphery of empire space, an area of low security that she would normally tend to avoid. When she disconnected from her pod, ears and eyes, so limited by biology replaced sensors that could detect things millions of kilometers away. Her armor and hull replaced by weak flesh. Evelyn couldn't help but feel disappointment. The first thing she checked was for her necklace, it was still in place.

One of the crew brought her a robe and some common civilian clothing that she had requested earlier. She had also had her replacement clone sent to the station, since there was a good chance that her current body would not survive exposure to microbes it had never encountered. She hacked up some pod goo and made her way to the bathroom, a dirty, one toilet stall with a sink. Evelyn used the robe as a towel to get the majority of the goo off of her and threw it away. The rest would evaporate or soak in. Evelyn got dressed; the clothes fit relatively well. She looked at herself in the mirror, her face was pasty white and puffy, most of the rest of her was deeply wrinkled. Evelyn thought that all this was probably normal, she had been stewing in liquid for the last few months. Hiding her cabling beneath a turban, she left the stall, and hopped a shuttle to the surface. Things took too long in the flesh and she quickly found herself bored with nothing to entertain herself. In her ship, there was always something to do, even if it was just to play a game, answer messages or sleep. As she left the shuttle, a man who was clearly looking for someone, saw her, smiled and approached. Evelyn lifted her finger unconsciously to tell her computer to do a weapons lock, she realized what she was doing and dropped her hand to her side.

"Are you Evelyn?" He asked. The man was handsome, in the way that unmodified men sometimes were, with a very closely cropped beard and receding hairline. He was perhaps in his mid to late 30's.

"I am," Evelyn croaked, then cleared her voice. Her vocal cords were stiff due to lack of use. "I am," she repeated more clearly.  
"I'm Jamie Johnson. I wanted to thank you for your kind note and prompt payment. I was about to go on vacation, then noticed that you had plotted a course for here. So I figured I would stick around and meet you. If you would like I can guide you to your grandmothers house. She is still alive, though failing fast. I think she is hanging on so she can talk to you."

"Nice to meet you. I could use the company. It's... very lonely here," She said. He looked at her, then looked at the bustling spaceport, smiled and shrugged.

"If you say so."

The walk though the ground terminal was exhausting. The workout routines that the clone was subjected to in the pod were clearly not all that rigorous. Evelyn's muscles burned and bones ached by the time she and Jamie got to the taxi. Jamie turned out to be a good and animated conversationalist and a jovial person overall. He was clearly intelligent and loved his investigative work; the way he described it, the work did seem interesting. Jamie asked her about being a capsuleer, and Evelyn tried to describe it, but the technical specifics mystified him and after a quarter of an hour he changed the subject. Data flows, damage assessments, missile tracking and correction techniques seemed to be out of his sphere of interest. Evelyn did not take offense, her old self wouldn't have been interested either. Jamie suggested that they stop by the park, get something to eat and let Evelyn "unprune" herself before meeting June. Evelyn agreed to the park but rejected the offer of food. She didn't know how her body would handle solids. This didn't stop Jamie from ordering and scarfing down some hot dogs and some Quafe from a purple can. Evelyn bought some dark glasses from a vendor as the sun was beginning to hurt her eyes.

A Gallente Federation soldier walked by with what Evelyn presumed was his wife and daughter. "Why do you keep doing that?" Jamie asked, it was only then that Evelyn realized she was pointing at the man.

"Sorry, habit. Before I became a capsuleer I spent a lot of time shooting at and getting shot at by those guys. The finger pointing is how I identify targets that I want to lock to the computer."

"Oh, so you were going to shoot me earlier? Well, that's just plain rude." They both laughed.

"No I wasn't going to shoot ya, just point some missiles at you in case I wanted to later."

"Well that does make me feel a lot better." Then Jamie started pointing at a police officer who walked by. The officer glared at them but continued on his way. Evelyn joined Jamie in snickering uncontrollably.

They arrived at Junes house, a small but pleasant yellow wooden construct situated on a small, real grass lawn via taxi. The taxi lifted off with a quiet hum leaving Jamie and Evelyn standing on the walkway. "Why don't you go in, I feel like taking a walk."

"Sure, I shouldn't be long I don't want to wear her out," Evelyn replied, though the truth be told she was already exhausted. Her entire body hurt and she could already feel the effects of a sunburn on every exposed surface she had. What she really wanted to do was lay down and go to sleep, or better crawl back in her pod and escape this fleshy painful prison all together.

The door opened as she approached and a young bio-tech met her. "Are you Evelyn?" he asked. Evelyn nodded and he ushered her in. "Jamie called ahead and told us you were coming. June is really looking forward to seeing you, this way." Evelyn followed him through the humbly appointed house to the master bedroom. There lay an old woman, what was left of her thin gray hair had been neatly brushed. Most of her was covered by a yellow and red patch quilt. The bio-tech closed the door and left the two of them alone. There was the sickly sweet smell of death in the air.

"Evelyn, you look so much like my son," The old woman said with a smile, "Though, truth be told, you would have been better served if you looked like your mother. But I see a bit of her in you as well. Come over and sit a while."

_Not really, my sister's dead because she looked like mother and I'm alive._

Evelyn took a seat in a simple plastic chair by the old woman's bedside. "The last time I saw you, you were only a little girl. You and your sister were so excited to go on the archeology expedition with your parents. You both loved to dig, just like your father. But lets back up for a while, we are strangers now after all, let me tell you about myself." And June St. Clair, recounted her life story. She grew up on this planet, but on the larger of the two continents. June had been a successful business woman and had grown wealthy. She had never married but had two sons and a daughter. The eldest son had gone to war and died there, the second son had been Evelyn's father, an archaeologist who specialized in ancient earth lore and had worked with the Sisters of Eve off and on for most of his life. Though he did not share their mystic beliefs. Evelyn's aunt, who had died in a shuttle accident when in transit from a business deal had left two children behind, who were her surviving cousins. June sold her business, and spent most of her money and time trying to track down Evelyn's father, Alexander, when the family had gone missing. When June was to tired to talk, she listened as Evelyn recounted her life.

Evelyn, spoke briefly about the deaths of her mother and father and the likely end of her sister. She left out a lot of the painful details but from the look of it June managed to piece together the truth, more or less. Evelyn went into more depth when she discussed her life as a slave of the Amarr, and as a soldier for the Caldari, especially her time as a soldier. It was the first time that she had been comfortable opening up and speaking freely to anyone. Not because the old woman was family, though that might have had something to do with it, but because June was dying and would likely never recount what she had heard to anyone who might become offended and able to hurt Evelyn. She talked for hours until her voice nearly gave out. It felt good.

"That is quite the story you have to tell. More adventure in your short life than any ten ordinary people have in a lifetime. We even have a capsuleer in the family now, shocking really. But I can see too that these events were not of your choosing. What would you do, if you could do anything?" June asked.

Evelyn thought on it for a long time, it was not a question that someone had asked her before. "I would settle down planet side, maybe become a farmer or something. Maybe have some kids," she finally responded.

"Well, why don't you do that?" The old lady asked.

"Because I am under contract, the only thing I know how to do is kill people and break things. I have nothing to offer the universe but that." Evelyn said. _I'm also for good or ill a part of a ship that can't enter the atmosphere, let alone plant a field._

June smiled. "Well at least you know what you're good at. The only thing sadder than a wonderful poet selling coffee for a living is someone who should be selling coffee writing poetry." Evelyn laughed at that. "I have some advice for you youngster and I want you to listen closely. Anyone who would enslave another is the lowest form of scum, lower than bankers, politicians and murderers. You might have been bought from the Amarr, but you have never been free. You've been owned your entire life from the day you were born until now, first by your parents, then that Amarr slave master, then the Caldari State. This Mr. House is a slave owner he just does it in a different more underhanded way, at least the Amarr are honest bastards. The way I see it is the only things that matter in a persons life are friends, family, freedom and happiness. You have no friends, and most of your family is dead and gone save two cousins that are more or less worthless paper pushers who haven't so much as come to visit their grandmother once in the past year." The old lady took a deep rasping breath. "So that leaves you with freedom and happiness. I've been around this galaxy and dealt with every government there is. Governments aren't good or bad, but they are made of people. Of those people fifty percent are worthless scumbags, the other fifty percent are working really hard to get their scumbag scout badge. Corporations are just small governments, except for the Caldari where the government and the corporations are the same thing. And the glorious Gallente Federation, with their politicians bought part and parcel by plutocrats. I spent all my money on intelligence and bribes to find you and your family, and they took but they never gave. Parasites the lot of them except maybe the Minmatar, but they are so clannish and paranoid that it's a wonder they get anything done with all their infighting. Hell, the only thing that keeps them together is their fear of the Amarr. Anyway a contract is nothing but a piece of paper, make no mistake about that, so is the law. You can choose to follow them or not. You stay with the Caldari because the only alternative you know of is worse, its a way to stay alive, but its no way to actually live. You've given up on freedom for a little security.

"You've got to live your life on your own terms, take risks, enjoy the moments. You don't need to be great to be happy. Hell, you don't even have to live a pleasant life to find more joy than suffering. Having good friends helps, family is good to, but choice is really all a person needs." The old woman hacked some blood into a rag. "Alright girl, it was very nice to see you. You have brought me a good measure of peace. Now go on and make some hard choices, I have some dying to do. But before you go, give me a hug, I've missed you more than you know." Evelyn knelt beside June's bed and embraced her frail body, she couldn't help but to cry. The two women stayed together for what seemed a long time, enough for Evelyn to cry herself out. Evelyn took her necklace off and put it around Junes neck.  
"This necklace is made of my original body. Half of that is my father the other half is my mother. Have yourself buried with it. It seems only right that we all get a proper funeral."  
June smiled faintly, tears running down her face. "I'll pass on your regards to your parents." And then she closed her eyes.

Evelyn rode in silence back to the spaceport, Jamie was with her but said nothing. As Evelyn left the hover Taxi she turned to Jamie. "I want you to find my sister. I don't care how long it takes or how expensive it is."

Jamie nodded. "You realize that I can't promise you anything. The trail is very cold."

"Well, then, it looks like you might have a job for life."

"God I hope not. I'll tell you what. I will look into any and all loose ends even the unlikely ones. I will see what I can find out from my colleagues. If I find something I will let you know. If I find someone better at this than I am, I'll make sure that they contact you."

"Best get started then. Be safe," Evelyn said and stepped away from the hovercar again and paused.

"Fly safe," Jamie said, Evelyn turned around for the second time.

"Wait... one last thing I need you to do for me. Do you know any good thieves?"

"Are you kidding? Half of my boyhood friends are cops, the other half are more honest and took to 'shady acquisitions', what do you need?" Jamie replied with a raised eyebrow. Evelyn gave him the target. "No problem, I know just the guys."

Evelyn walked into the spaceport took a shuttle back to the space station and talked with the ground crew. "Bring out my Ibis, I want a full rack of Missile Launcher I's in the high slots and a warp scrambler and a web in the mids, leave the lows empty."

Evelyn reconnected to her pod. Her first message was that she had contracted the flu and the pod was unsure if it could be cured before it caused irreparable damage to her current clone. Evelyn deleted it. The next was a scathing message from Mr. House demanding to know why she was not fulfilling her contracts out in the belts. He demanded an immediate face to face. Evelyn messaged him her location and a meeting place in Jita, Mr. House confirmed receipt.

Fifteen hours later Evelyn was floating just off of one of the Jita's jump gates. She kept enough distance to stay out of traffic but close enough to make sure the sentries were in range. Concord and Caldari State battleships hovered lazily around the gate scanning down random ships for contraband. But with Jita being the busiest trade hub in the galaxy it was impossible to get it all or even a good fraction.  
Evelyn had been off-gate for quite some time mulling over, not only what June and Rex had said, but also some philosophy classes that she had uploaded a few weeks back. While she had been focusing on learning combat skills as ordered, she had continued to study university education programs while waiting for things to happen in belts or while in transit. Space combat skills were mostly advanced mathematics and instinct that imprinted directly into her brain without much effort. The university programs on the other hand required a lot of thought to actually understand and use. A fact, without context and thought was useless.

The computer gave her the warning alarm that Mr. House's shuttle had just come through the gate. _The House Always Wins_ was a sleek highly modified Gallente model, gold body with chrome wings. It was one of a kind, full of luxuries and everything in it was top of the line custom. Mr House wasted no time.

"Evelyn, why did you go into Gallente space? More importantly, why did you go into Gallente space when you were supposed to be in the belts taking care of the miners? You have one job, and one job only, to do your missions and make ISK. I made an investment in you and I expect to see a return." Mr. House yelled his face bright red. "I made you! I took you out of that incinerator, I kept you from going back to your life as a professional bullet sponge. Look at you, your never hungry, never cold, hell I don't even know if you get tired. I've made you better than you ever could have become by yourself. Show a little fucking gratitude and get back to collecting bounties keeping those miners mining."

Evelyn took a moment to respond, "Is Jane with you?" she asked.

"No! If I wanted you to talk to Jane I would let you talk to Jane. Your little girl gab sessions can be done on your own time. Right now I want you to get back to where your supposed to be and take care of my miners. How hard is that to get through your thick skull?"

"So, she isn't with you then?" Evelyn replied.

"Ugh! You insufferable twit, I don't drag my personal assistant all over the galaxy. There's work to be done and she is back at her office doing it. Do you see what I'm getting at? Jane knows her place, Jane is hard at work doing what I told her to do. Take that as a lesson and go back to your contract. And just so you know, you will be getting penalized for your absence. Fifteen million."

"All living things must die, it is the nature of things. From time immemorial to the present each and every thing had lived only as long as that which god has allowed," Evelyn said.

"What?"

"It's a quote I read a few days back. I thought it rang of the truth. But you didn't..." Evelyn replied.

"Are you threatening me? Remember I have your clone. I can destroy it at any time," Mr. House snarled.

"As I was saying, only god the creator has not, and cannot die. God is and forever will be. None but god can live forever. It's from the Pax Amarria. Did you like it?" Evelyn asked.

"Very poetic." He said through gritted teeth.

"Moving into something a Professor Reginald Johnson said from the Luminaire University that I found enlightening. 'In the modern era we have found a precious few who, through the gifts of technology, never take their last breaths. They can simply move from one body to another in the same way that we change our underwear, well me anyway, I don't know about some of my students. I mean some don't change their undies, and some don't even wear them, but I digress. Mankind can already create life in a test tube, we can grow children in vats. People have bent life and nature to our whim in a billion ways. We construct structures of what would have been unimaginable size to primitive peoples. If we were to walk among our ancestors would they not think that we are deities? So now that we have people who are effectively immortal, has mankind created and become god?'"

"So your a god now?" He asked his rage diminishing. Evelyn could see the fear creep into his face.

"I've done a lot of research on gods thanking men. And you know what?" Evelyn paused. "I couldn't find a single reference." Mr. House's console began to sound a shrill lock-on tone.

He slammed his hand on the keyboard. "Computer warp to station!"

"Unable to enter warp, warp core unstable. Sub light propulsion is also jammed." The computer replied blandly. Pulses of energy flowed from Evelyn's ship, randomly shifting the fields in Mr. Houses warp core. Both the Concord and Caldari warships locked onto her ship. She shut her pod auto eject modules off.

"Never create a god and expect gratitude." Two volleys of missiles flew from Evelyn's launchers before Concord and Caldari police ships turned the Ibis into so much atomized gas and scrap metal. The last thing Evelyn saw was Mr. House's prized shuttle being pulverized with scourge missiles.

Evelyn woke up floating in a clone tank. Jamie was there looking in through the view port. "You're early, we just broke you out of the freighter. We should have you in a new pod and in your Kestrel in about six hours. I had a friend do a jailbreak on your account as well and we got most of your money out. Any modules you left behind got confiscated, couldn't do anything about that given the time constraints."

"Thanks Jamie, you really earned your pay on this one," Evelyn texted via implant cable. During her stay in the tank Evelyn began sending messages to nulsec capsuleer corporations. She needed to find a home among her own kind. The next day Evelyn set a course for the frontier.


End file.
